1. Field
Example embodiments of the present invention are related generally to a method of scheduling data transmission within a wireless communications network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional wireless networks (e.g., WLAN, WAN, etc.) include a plurality of inter-connected nodes, with each node sharing a common wide band transmission channel. If multiple nodes in close proximity to each other transmit data at the same time, the respective data transmissions may interfere with each other, which may reduce throughput and degrade system performance.
A medium access control (MAC) protocol may be used to reduce the number of concurrent data transmissions at mutually interfering nodes in the network. A conventional MAC protocol allows only a subset of the nodes to transmit at any given time in order to reduce the number of “collisions” (e.g., interfering data transmissions).
Generally, a MAC algorithm seeks to schedule data transmissions so as to maximize the data throughput of the wireless network without prohibitive delays, and also to maintain a certain degree of fairness. However, executing a MAC protocol for large networks is difficult and inefficient.